Technology and market leaders in the physical security and telecommunications industries formed the Secure City Technology Alliance (SCTA). The alliance is focused on providing governments around the world with interoperable, city-wide security solutions that can be rapidly deployed, easily managed and will enable instant coordination for dramatically improved public safety and emergency response. The market for these types of integrated solutions is large, global and growing with spending predicted to accelerate by 30 percent annually to reach US $5.7 billion by 2014, according to projections based on data from IMS Research and Infonetics Research.
Technology and market leaders in the physical security and telecommunications industries formed the Secure City Technology Alliance (SCTA). The alliance is focused on providing governments around the world with interoperable, city-wide security solutions that can be rapidly deployed, easily managed and will enable instant coordination for dramatically improved public safety and emergency response. The market for these types of integrated solutions is large, global and growing with spending predicted to accelerate by 30 percent annually to reach US $5.7 billion by 2014, according to projections based on data from IMS Research and Infonetics Research.
SCTA founding members comprise industry leaders in wireless networks and services, video surveillance, and data and voice networking.
City, municipal and state governments face significant pressure to ensure that their emergency teams can prevent, respond to and recover from disasters and threats both man-made and natural in an informed and coordinated manner. Their mandate is broad, spanning critical infrastructure concerns such as airports, seaports, railways, subways, electrical power systems, water supplies and gas utilities. Further complicating this responsibility is the fact that these teams must manage emergency events using disparate and complex systems across multiple groups, jurisdictions, formalized command structures and varying standard operating procedures.
To improve today's systems, government agencies need a flexible platform that will allow them to collaborate more effectively among government organizations, non-government services and civilians. SCTA aims to work with systems integrators and consultants to deliver end-to-end wireless solutions that support integrated voice communications, video surveillance, sensor monitoring, mass notification and telecollaboration capabilities. Its members have ensured interoperability across their solutions to simplify the integration process and save organizations both time and money.
"This is an opportunity to transform how our public and civilian organizations deal with threats and emergency incidents," said Terence Matthews, a technology industry enthusiast who has founded or been actively involved in more than 80 technology companies and will serve as SCTA Chairman. "The challenge is to improve interoperability between communications and security systems to enable immediate, coordinated responses to emergency incidents. We are uniting technology companies and thought leaders to ensure we fully realize the capabilities of safety and security organizations globally."